Market, Scale, Grow: Facebook Ad Marketing Strategy for Teacherpreneurs

197 | Summit Success Series: Strategic Marketing for Online Summits

• Jenzaia

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Are you hosting a summit this summer?  Then you'll definitely need a strategic marketing plan.  With careful preparation and planning, you can ensure your summit supports your goals of audience growth and revenue generation. 


In this episode, we explore...

✨ What a summit is and how they can make you money

✨ Why it's essential to have a strategic marketing plan

✨ The three facets of your strategic summit marketing plan



Join us next week as we discuss backwards planning your summit promotion timeline from your kickoff date.


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Speaker 1:

Happy strategy session. Today we're talking about summits and the strategic marketing that is required to ensure that you have a successful event. So in this episode, we're gonna talk about exactly what a summit is. We're gonna talk about why it's important to have a strategic marketing plan and the three facets of your marketing plan. So let's jump in. What exactly is a summit?

Speaker 1:

Summits are online events that are based off of conferences. So in-person conferences that are happening at gigantic conference halls or hotels or those venues, and you'll typically go for two or three days. There's keynote speakers happening at the, the dinner meal, and then throughout the day, there's a bunch of breakout sessions and you can pick to go to some of them or maybe you have to go to specific ones, but there's. So there's smaller sessions throughout the day and then a bigger session at night, and often there's social events, networking events, that type of thing in the evenings, after dinner, sometimes in the morning, there'll be like yoga or Pilates or whatever. So that's what a conference is, and an online summit is based off of that. So you'll have typically one or two keynote speakers, the host and then someone else with smaller presenters throughout the day. Typically, online summits that I've seen are anywhere from two to five days long, and especially the longer ones. They'll break up the days into key categories. So let's just say that this was a summit for grade two teachers. Maybe we'd have a day for classroom management and a day for math and a day for literacy and a day for, like specials, so science, social studies, computer, all of that type of thing, so that you would know, have a better idea of like what types of speakers are going to be happening on which days. Don't have to have it broken up that way, but I do find that that organization can be really helpful for the people who are participating. Summits are really really great because they help to build your audience in a relatively inexpensive way. They help you to nurture your audience both your existing audience and the new people brought in from the summit and they also can be a really great source of income for your business. So we're going to talk about that too, and that's why I think summits have really grown in popularity.

Speaker 1:

There's a lower cost to hosting an online summit than there is to a conference. When it's an in-person conference, there are some pretty big expenses like renting the venue, and typically you're going to have to pay speakers, especially the bigger names, you're going to have to shell out for like swag bags and other like pieces of the puzzle that you don't have to. For an online conference, for an online summit, the costs to getting started are much cheaper. You don't have the event space rental, you don't always have to pay speakers. Often you don't have to pay any of the speakers and there's just fewer cost barriers. You can also get more people to attend an online event because they don't have to leave their house, they don't have any transportation costs, they can watch these, the presentations, in the like in their pajamas on their own time, and that can be a really big draw, whereas an in-person event you do need to get people there, um. So there's definitely been a huge increase in online summits over the years because not only are they really great for the host, but they're also really great exposure for the presenters, and so there are lots of people who really want to participate in these so that they can get more exposure in front of new people and new audiences.

Speaker 1:

So I've been part of many different summits as a presenter, as an attendee and also part of the marketing team, and I love that most of them are hosted live. They're presented live but as a presenter, it isn't live. These are pre-recorded sessions that are then scheduled to go live at specific times so that the attendees get a similar live experience, but the presenters are able to do it in their own time and to really create a more powerful presentation for the attendees. The other great thing about that is many conferences or sorry, many summits the presenter is able to be like in the chat with the attendees and so where when you're presenting live, you might not be able to respond to questions and inquiries and commentary in real time, because the presentation is pre-recorded, you're able to, as the presenter, interact with the audience more real time. I've only been in one conference. I presented in a summit where it was live. I had to show up at the specific time. I went live in the room and I did my presentation live. I didn't like that experience as much, but I do know that there are some great benefits to that. Because of the just the format can feel more intimate and more there there can feel like there is a better connection between you and the presenters. So that is an option. It's just not the common one for online summits. So that's my ramble about what a summit is.

Speaker 1:

Now let's talk about strategic marketing, because it doesn't matter how much work, effort, time planning, preparation you put into your summit, if you don't have a strategic marketing plan and nobody shows up to the summit, then it's all a waste, and you need to be thinking about not only getting people registered for the summit, but then also the money-making factors of how you're going to make a profit from this, because it is a business venture, and so there's two different main ways that I recommend that you explore. The first one is VIP ticket upsells. So typically the best summits that I have participated in in all three ways, the best ones are free tickets with a paid VIP ticket on the thank you page, so everyone gets access to all the presentations. And then if you pay the $27.37, I've even been part of ones that was a $97 upgrade you pay for the upgraded ticket. Then you get extended access. You might get more like intimate one-on-one hot seats or question time or extra like presentations. You'll probably get bonus workbooks or other pieces that are really valuable that aren't available to the free attendees. That's only available to those VIP pass holders. So that's the first one, and then the second one is making sure that you have some sort of open cart period afterwards. So you may or may not actually pitch something at the summit, but afterwards through an email sequence, at very minimum, through an email sequence, you are pitching some sort of product, whether it's a course or a membership or a service. After the summit you're pitching. So you need to have your primary marketing plan is getting people into the summit, into those free tickets, but you also have to consider those the upgrade, and then the post-ticket summit launch as well.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about the strategic marketing plan and why it's essential, because there are three different facets and we'll get into that in a minute. There's three different facets to the marketing plan and unfortunately, the one that we think and the one that previously did so well just isn't really doing as well anymore, and that's organic. Previously, and I would say like three to five years ago, organic marketing was doing really well. You could post on social media a couple times, you could send it a couple emails and you would fill up any sort of live event, any sort of summit, anything pretty easily. But we all know that organic reach is down and we all know that people are opening emails less than they were previously, especially those promo type emails, and so organic just isn't sufficient, but it is a very key part to your marketing plan is having that organic presence, making sure that you are sending emails so that your name is showing up, because that is a micro connection point. People see your name in their inbox and they recognize you and that builds a tiny bit of trust because you're showing up. They see a social media post. They might not click on it, they might not read it, they might not actually absorb that information, but it is a micro touch point that somebody is building a relationship with you in the tiniest, tiniest amounts and that is so, so important that you are creating that. So having that strategic marketing plan is going to fill all of the bubble and just make it so that you and your summit are showing up everywhere so that people are like, okay, this is the thing I need to do, this is the place I need to be and this is it. So the three facets I already talked about the first one, that's the organic marketing, and that in and of itself, has multiple different facets email marketing, long form content and social media. You're going to be showing up in a lot of different places for the organic marketing.

Speaker 1:

The second facet of your summit promotion plan is going to be your affiliate affiliate marketing, and this has two different pieces to it. The first one is your presenters. Hopefully well, not hopefully, but depending on your audience your presenters are going to want to promote as well. There are definitely some instances where the presenters don't have an audience and are not presenting at a conference to get like bigger audiences themselves, and so presenters are not always an option for affiliate marketing, but they also can be. So, thinking about your audience, who are sorry? Thinking about your presenters, who are they and would they be open to promoting the summit to their audience as well? I'm currently participating in a summit as a presenter. I'm presenting as a business owner, so I'm bringing my audience to the summit and I'm hoping to expand my audience with other presenters audiences as well.

Speaker 1:

I have been on the back end as a marketing professional, for I can think of off the top of my head very specifically, three different summits. One of them was a summit for pharmacists, and the presenters were medical professionals. They did not have their own business. They were experts in pharmacy and medication and the diseases that this specific summit was speaking to, so they didn't bring their own audiences. So that was a very different case. I've also been part of a summit that was for teachers and the presenters were classroom teachers, and so they weren't bringing their expertise, if you will. They well, they were sorry, they were bringing their expertise, but they weren't business owners, they were classroom teachers. They didn't have audiences that they were bringing. And then I'm I'm gapping on what the third one is right now, but that's okay. So there are definitely times and instances where your audience will, or so your presenters will not be bringing their own audience with them, and that.

Speaker 1:

So the second part of affiliate marketing could go with presenters promoting, or it could be separate, and that's finding sponsors. And so, specifically for the pharmacists, when I was doing that presentation, there was a company that became an affiliate for this summit and they were like a sister niche, so they weren't promoting to exactly the same topic as the summit host was, but they were had a very similar audience and her audience was the same type of people that this company would want, and so she was able to find someone to sponsor the, the event, sponsor the summit, and was able to bring in a larger audience through their audience by giving them a sponsorship position where they had some pretty great benefits. So, thinking about using your presenters as affiliates or using sponsors and I did see one time um, and this just came to me, I can't believe I forgot about it, but there was one summit that I was part of behind the scenes where the attendees were actually affiliates, and so that was that was kind of cool and unique where once you had purchased your VIP pass, if I remember correctly, you had the ability ability to become an affiliate and get your friends or business associates, whatever it might be, to also join, and if they were to purchase the affiliate pass, then there was a kickback to you as a participant for bringing someone in. So I think that that could work really well in a case where you don't have presenters who are looking at like expanding their audience. Typically there is a kickback to presenters. By the way, affiliate, if you as a presenter are bringing people into the conference and then someone buys the VIP pass through you, there's there is a financial kickback to that. There is that, that financial benefit. So it benefits me in two ways where I'm expanding my audience, but I'm also making a little bit of money from that and I would say normally that that is between 40 to 60 percent. I've seen it as low as 10 percent and, um, there were some really angry presenters when they found out that it was 10 percent, that the kickback was, um, that host did like burnt some bridges there, um, and the highest I think I've seen it was 80%, which was really cool. I was like, wow, that is very generous of this host. Yeah, so just as like a side remark the affiliate is bringing in their audience, so the host is able to grow their audience. The host does make some money too, anywhere from like, if the average I would say is 40 to 60 percent, then the host is making 60 to 40 percent of the money from the VIP sales. So it kind of works out nicely for both the presenter who's brought people in, but also the host, obviously.

Speaker 1:

And then the third facet to the marketing plan is ads, and I highly recommend you consider that after you've run the summit once. So I always recommend that people host their summit one time without running ads, so that they have an idea of what the summit looks like, how everything works together. They have affiliates set up, they have the platform all set up and then the second time they run it. Most people, I would say, are running summits every 6 to 12 months, and so it's either a biannual or an annual event. So once you've ran it the first time, the next time considering starting to run ads, and that can just be a really great way to expand the cold audience that you are targeting. And why it's always a good idea to run the event once before you run ads is that it gives you a chance to really hone in on that messaging, hone in on who the target audience is and, like I already said, get all of the processes and technology really working before you kick it into high gear. So those are the different pieces of the puzzle.

Speaker 1:

It's really important that you think through your marketing plan. Are you going to be using what? Sorry, think through your marketing plan organic. Are you going to be using social media, instagram, tiktok, something else? Are you going to be sending emails? The answer should be yes, yes, yes, yes. Please be sending emails to your audience. Nurture emails, promotion emails, um. Are you going to be creating long-form content? Again, the answer should be yes, like having that organic piece in place.

Speaker 1:

Thinking through your affiliate marketing are your presenters able to be affiliates. Are you going to be doing sponsors, with presenters as affiliates or sponsors separately? Are you going to figure out a way that the attendees could be affiliates? How are you going to use other people's audiences? Because there are three types of like traffic that you can. You can I was going to say buy, but that's not the first. You can build an audience that's organic. You can borrow an audience that's the affiliates and you can buy the audience. So that is your ads paying money to get eyes on the registration page and then they you're not buying them in, you're just getting. You're buying their eyes on your advertisements.

Speaker 1:

Um, but yeah, so making, how are you going to use those three organically other people's audiences with the affiliates? And then, if you've already ran the summit and you're ready to add in paid traffic, how are you going to do that? What types of ads are you going to run and how are you going to really use the power of ads to your advantage? So those are the three facets. I hope that you found this helpful. I hope that you'll come back next week because I'm actually going to do a second summit episode next week. We're going to talk about backwards, creating that promo plan. So you would need to know your kickoff date, like when your summit is starting, so that we can backwards plan when you need to be getting all of these different pieces of the puzzle in place. But yeah, thanks for being here and I hope you have a wonderful day.